Athens, Greece, October 17, 2012 – Ethnikos Alexandroupolis celebrated a historic win on the opening day of the Volleyleague OPAP 2012-2013. They won, in straight sets, for the very first time against Panathinaikos at Athens.

Ivan Raic was the leading scorer for Ethnikos with 19 points, but Anestis Dalakouras, the Thrace team’s 19-year-old wing spiker, was the key player of the match and he was named the MVP of the 1st round.

The first two sets of the match were an epic battle in front of a fantastic crowd of Panathinaikos fans – the second set in particular seemed an endless fight. But at just over 49 minutes, Dalakouras’ kill block over Vinicius Raguzzoni put an end to the thriller.

Pamvohaikos Vrahati Korinthia, meanwhile, suffered a major upset at home with a five set marathon loss to newly-promoted Milonas Neas Smirnis.

Iraklis, the defending champions playing in PAOK’s home, started their campaign with a loss in straight sets. It was Andrei Kravarik’s debut as coach. Olympiakos, the favourite in this year’s competition, retained a clean sheet with their win over Lamia despite having to play without their injured libero Giorgos Stefanou and wing spiker Jerni Potocnik.

Finikas Surou, last year’s runners-up, came from behind to edge AO Kifisias in four sets and Aris Thessaloniki defeated Niki Aiginiou 3-0.